Through its ties with Venezuela and other nations in Latin America, Iran is building an anti-US alliance in the Western Hemisphere that poses a direct, imminent threat to the United States, an influential US lawmaker said Thursday.

The remark from House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairwoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, author of sanctions legislation targeting Iran that was recently passed by a near-unanimous vote, comes amid an increasingly visible campaign by right-wing politicians and allied institutions to build the case for further sanctions and other acts of economic warfare against the Islamic Republic – and, perhaps, set the stage for military action.

The administration of President Barack Obama has implemented stringent sanctions against Iran that have helped cripple its economy and, as the president himself noted in his State of the Union address last month, refused to take the prospect of all-out war off the table.

Its right-wing critics, however, allege the Obama administration has done too little to counter what they portray as an almost apocalyptic threat.

At a hearing Thursday of the House Foreign Affairs Committee focused on Iran’s dealings in Latin America, Norman Bailey of the conservative American Foreign Policy Council even charged that the Islamic Republic, through its allies Hezbollah, had constructed "numerous military camps inside Venezuela, as well as in South Lebanon, with the express purpose of training young Venezuelans to attack American targets."

He also claimed Iran had "established missile bases in Venezuela," though adding that those reports were as of yet "unconfirmed."

In reality, though, there is no factual basis for either claim. Indeed, were there anything to them, one would imagine US Director of National Intelligence James Clapper might have mentioned them during his Jan. 31 testimony before Congress on threats to the US.

And, indeed, reports of Iranian missiles in Venezuela were last year explicitly rejected by the Pentagon, with a spokesman saying that not only were said reports unconfirmed, but in fact there was "no evidence" to support the claim and "therefore no reason to believe the assertions… are credible."

But with Iran, no claim – from allegations of a covert nuclear weapons program to charges its providing training for the Venezuelan terrorists of tomorrow – appears too far-fetched for hawks in Washington. Latin America is but the latest anti-Tehran talking point, spurred in part by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad recent four-country tour of the region, which US policymakers have long considered their rightful sphere of influence.

During his January trip, Ahmadinejad met with heads of state in Venezuela, Nicaragua, Cuba, and Ecuador, all countries that enjoy at best rocky relations with Washington. To those seeking further sanctions and potentially a shooting war with Iran, the trip provided for ready-made right-wing propaganda.

Regional experts, however, said the tour was more about Iran attempting to project an image of diplomatic strength amid US and European efforts at isolation than launching attacks against the US.

But such experts, with but one lone exception, were not invited to the Feb. 2 hearing called by Ros-Lehtinen, a Florida Republican. She said Iran’s relations with Latin American countries like Cuba and Venezuela posed a growing threat to the US homeland, pointing to the recent testimony from Director of National Intelligence Clapper about Iran’s alleged willingness to "conduct an attack in the United States in response to real or perceived US actions."

In particular, she charged that Iran and its alleged proxies had established deep ties with drug traffickers and other criminal organizations. "The synergy between Hezbollah and the drug cartels in Latin America makes for a very powerful enemy," said Ros-Lehtinen, one that poses "a clear and present danger."

She announced after the hearing that she was introducing another sanctions bill seeking to limit Iran’s ability to carry out electronic financial transactions, presumably with countries such as Venezuela, by far its closest ally in either Central or South America.

Ros-Lehtinen’s at-times stark rhetoric at the hearing was matched by panelist Michael Braun, the US Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) chief of operations under President George W. Bush.

Hezbollah and Iran’s Quds Force, he testified, "are now heavily involved in the global drug trade. Not only that, they "are pouring into Latin America," he continued, "thanks in large part to Hugo Chávez in Venezuela, the undisputed gatekeeper for Middle Eastern terrorist groups seeking to enter Latin America."

Additionally, the spectacular-if-true plot on behalf of some Iranian officials to assassinate the Saudi Arabian ambassador in Washington "qualifies as the perfect example of the looming threat posed by Iran’s proxies operating freely in the Western Hemisphere, and their ability to collaborate with organized crime," Braun added in prepared testimony.

The alleged plot against the Saudi ambassador is often cited by politicians in Washington as evidence of the Iranian government’s borderline irrational hostility to the US and its allies. Howard Berman, the top Democrat on the Foreign Affairs Committee, pointed to it in his own opening statement at the hearing, as did Chairwoman Ros-Lehtinen.

But while intended to demonstrate the fearful extent of Iran and its proxies’ ties to criminal organizations in Latin America and willingness to exploit them, the plot if true would suggest the Islamic Republic’s regional ties are much weaker than alleged, showing it reliant on bumbling used car salesman in Texas to reach out to the very drug cartels with which it is alleged to already enjoy strong relations.

However, in Congress leaders of both major political parties are united in playing up the alleged threat to the US posed by Iran. For his part, Berman, a California Democrat, said at the hearing that "Iran is arguably the foremost threat to United States interests in the world." Berman said "Tehran’s pursuit of a nuclear weapons capability," as well as its "support for international terrorism," requires "extreme vigilance" on the part of the US.

Berman’s reference to Iran’s alleged pursuit of a "nuclear weapons capability" came despite the fact Director of National Intelligence Clapper testified earlier in the week that US intelligence agencies "assess Iran is keeping open the option to develop nuclear weapons," not that its leaders have actually decided to pursue a weapons capability.

Michael Shifter, president of the Washington-based think tank Inter-American Dialogue, was the lone witness at the hearing to portray Iran’s activities in Latin America as less than threatening – and even rather pathetic.

Though Latin America as a whole is enjoying increased assertiveness and independence from the US in terms of foreign affairs, Shifter said, it has no real desire to enter into a meaningful alliance with a pariah like Iran.

While leaders of Venezuela, Nicaragua, Cuba, and Ecuador may share the Islamic Republic’s view of the US empire, and are more than willing to entertain Iran’s offers of aid – even if said aid never materializes, as has more often than not been the case – their relations are largely rhetorical in nature. They are also, notably, countries that are small, poor, and of little or waning influence.

And while some on the US right have alleged Iranian operatives are conducting terror training camps in Venezuela and perhaps elsewhere in Latin America, Shifter noted there is "no convincing evidence that such activities are taking place," which is particularly "noteworthy in light of what are presumably vigorous efforts by US intelligence agencies to gather pertinent intelligence."

As such, the US should not let Iran’s diplomatic forays in its perceived sphere of influence cause it to lash out and punish the region for talking to a longtime foe.

"Invoking the Monroe Doctrine in this day and age would be very misguided and would alienate our closest Latin American friends," Shifter testified. "It would ultimately be self-defeating."

All of these charlatans are trying to initiate a war of aggression — and as such, deserve to be treated exactly the Italians treated Mussolini. Of course, they'll escape, like the Nazis who were helped by the US to flee — where? — to South America, where the skills of the SS were needed.

The foreign policy of the US is an imminent threat to peace and a menace to the world. I wish Russia and China would muzzle these rabid mongrels.

perhaps Ross-Lehtinen and Berman will find it necessary to hold a hearing on Iran's infiltration of Santa's operations in the North Pole. Next we wll hear that Iran is trying to cross Siberia, enter the North Pole, and mine uranium at the North Pole with which to assemble a nuclear weapon in a time period of 2 years. Of course, all of this activity will be unknown to U.S. intelligence agencies. Remember, even though those U.S. Government agencies for years were paying the Kurds and Israeli operatives in Iraq to gather intelligence that Iraq did have "weapons of mass destruction" and with our cyber monitoring of Iraq's economy and the effects of our sanctions, all of our "experts" could not realize that there were NO weapons of mass destruction that could harm the United States. The same game is being played on U.S. taxpayers as was played for a war with Iraq. Ross-Lehtinen and Berman are either deliberately spreading propaganda or lacking the ability to use what brains they have.

Do you know that would be anti-Semitic to point out that Ros-Leitenen and Berman, the two leaders of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, are Jewish? Or that the Party of God has never laid a finger on a single American (except for military in hostile occupation of Hezzb'allah's country)? Or that these two Jews have (in Berman's case, for near three decades) used the power, influence and resources of the US Congress to push an Israeli agenda? Well, pointing all that out would be anti-Semitic, so I would not think of doling it.

Israel's Arab neighbors and their fellow Muslims in Iran have enough oil to cause a lot of (self-destructive) damage to the world if Israel too blatantly humiliates one of them. US guarantees of Saudi security against anybody in general, not least their closest cousins in Yemen, keep them under control. But Iran is scary, with influence in Syria and virtual control of Iraq. So Israel makes terrorist and covert war on Iran, hollers about retaliation as 'terrorism' from the Levant, and balances the oil embargo threat with the threat of US bombing. I know the embargo danger is much less now than once upon a time, but how totally drenched is this analysis? All wet, or not?

It used to be that Congressional committee hearings were used to seek and reveal the truth. Now, they only seem to be used to push an agenda of lies, innuendo, posturing and chest-thumping uninterested in even considering the truth.

I leave near several large cities, and I see the neighborhoods going down, one by one, and as people flee, poor desperate immigrants replace them. It is one big open air drug market. Guns or butter, Democrats? There isn't money for both.

I though she was a Scientologist these days. She is pro-child marriage as well as gay marriage. Basically she is a deranged bitch but since she is from Havana the Cubans will vote for her. Mexicans are to be shot at the border. Cubans are to be hoisted on shoulders and carried to cheer directly to the welfare office to get them onto the Yankee dole.

Bush and the Republicans are the Guns and Butter party. LBJ proved that that way is the path to economic destruction. Romney and Newt are promising to add another $1T to the deficit and spend even more on the Imperial weapons programs.

I think we have to just get used to the demonization of Latin America — as with China. It's no surprise that this demonization is focused particularly on Venezuela, Nicaragua, Cuba, and Ecuador, given that these are the most left-leaning of the Latin American states.

These states (to paraphrase Charles Kupchan) continue to reap globalization’s benefits while limiting its liabilities, in no small part because they have retained control over policy instruments abandoned by their neo-liberal competitors. This demonization is necessary because the US doesn’t want Americans getting any social-democratic ideas.

Whatever Hugo Chavez’s faults (and they are probably many), he has focused his considerable efforts on what OWS calls “the 99 percent,” and he has cut poverty in half and all but eradicated illiteracy. That is a huge threat to the Washington agenda.

Fortunately, Chavez has repatriated Venezuela's gold. Here's hoping, when the time becomes necessary, that he supports Iran, remembers that Wall Street's road to Caracas leads through Tehran, and imposes an oil embargo on the U.S., which poses an existential threat to the Bolivarian Republic.

There goes Christmas for millions of American kids. What a shame. I heard that the Iranians are also training dolphins to carry nuclear weapons, strapped to their bodies, to launch an attack on coastal USA. The dolpfins are already on their way. If I hear of any other threats I will let you know.

Associated Press is now reporting that Predator drones have wiped out Santa's workshop. Several dozen militant elves have been killed, along with unconfirmed numbers of Hezbollah. Just ahead of the strike, Santa was taken out by a Seal team and his body dumped at sea. Ros-Lehtinen, in a press conference, has asked Homeland Security to conduct sweeps across the country to seize all toys distributed this past Christmas so they could be tested for traces of drugs and nuclear material.

Everyone knows that the Iranians have a secret base in Antarctica where the Ayatollah Khomeini is preparing a huge army of Emperor penguins for their invasion of South America. The only thing holding them back is getting the penguins to figure out the direction to Mecca for the obligatory prayers.

Now to figure out how to gerrymander Miami Beach and West Palm Beach into small, politically useless segments . . . Oh wait a minute, we can just use the Israeli West Bank settlement template! Problem solved!